International outrage as Voreqe Bainimarama returned as Fiji premier

Share via

Fiji is facing an international backlash after its military leader Voreqe Bainimarama was reinstated as Prime Minister of the turbulent nation.

The South Pacific country was now “virtually a military dictatorship,” said Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd after an extraordinary three days which saw Commodore Bainimarama’s government declared illegal, and the former coup leader stand down, only for him to be returned as Prime Minister on Saturday.

Mr Bainimarama, who seized power in a coup in 2006, had his regime declared invalid by Fiji’s Appeal Court on Thursday. But less than a day later the country’s ailing President Josefa Iloilo